Some Montana Coal Mines May Shut Down Over Next Decade

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
/ U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

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Some Montana Coal Mines May Shut Down Over Next Decade

Several big coal mines in Montana and Wyoming are projected to close within the next two decades. The mines' owner, Westmoreland Coal Company, is on the brink of bankruptcy.

In a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company listed the estimated closure dates for several mines they own in the Powder River Basin, which is the nation’s largest coal producing region.

The mines include one on the Crow Reservation in Montana that could shutter in four years and the massive Rosebud mine near Colstrip which could shut down operations by 2029.

Westmoreland’s three mines in Montana employ more than 500 people and generate tens of millions of dollars in state and federal tax revenues. The Absaloka mine could shutter over the next four years and the massive Rosebud mine near Colstrip could shut down by 2029.

The company publishes life expectancies for those mines every year. A spokesperson for Westmoreland declined an interview for this story.

Former U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson says the coal industry isn’t dead. He says it’s in transition and there needs to be a plan. Part of that plan may be forming a coalition with renewable energy producers.

Richardson envisions something akin to a Marshall Plan. It was a U.S. program that helped Europe rebuild after the devastation of World War II.

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Over the past decade, the market for Mountain West coal has cooled. Renewables and natural gas in the U.S. are cheaper, stocks are tumbling and some coal companies are even teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.